#jesse lasky

The June 25, 1930 edition of Film Daily noted the industry VIPs who were arriving at and leaving the city. Film Daily was the first daily newspaper devoted to the movie industry. It was published in New York.

I was combing through Scott Eyman’s book on Cecil B. DeMille and found the most hilarious story. He saw The Sheik before it went into release and told Jesse Lasky in no uncertain terms that he thought it was an inevitable flop:

“I think it is a very stupid, uninteresting picture, with not a moment of reality, and it bores one throughout. Agnes Ayres is very bad, and with the exception of a few scenes, much of her beauty is gone. Valentino was apparently so made to over-act in his big close-ups that my children screamed with laughter as each close-up of him came on the screen. In this picture, there are some of the most beautiful shots of Arabs riding that I have ever seen, but I saw so many Arabs riding for so long that I would take little naps and wake up to find them still riding.”

He proceeds to call the movie a “lemon” and then advises Lasky not to get his hopes up for box office gold.